TO
THE HOLY SYNOD
OF THE BULGARIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH – BULGARIAN PATRIARCHY
DECLARATION
of the association “Orthodox Call”
Your Eminences,
we are surprised by your decision regarding the list of eligible bishops in connection with the upcoming elections for a new metropolitan of Sliven, which will be held on May 19 in Sliven. “Surprised” is the mildest possible assessment of what you have done and is dictated by the misunderstanding of the facts listed below, which we also form in the following questions:
1. How come two months after the first election for Metropolitan of Sliven was canceled, the new list of candidates was reduced from ten to six bishops?
2. What necessitated a change in the list, from which four of the bishops eligible for election two months ago were removed, namely – Bishop Hieroteus of Agathopol, Bishop Michael of Constantia, Bishop Polycarp of Belogradchis and Bishop Vissarion of Smolensk?
3. What are the reasons for this correction of the list and according to what criteria was it compiled with the current candidates?
Well, all these bishops, according to you, the members of the Holy Synod, meet certain qualities after they were ordained (ordained) over the years!
Well, all of them have been determined worthy of election and have been included by you in previous lists of metropolitan candidates!
Why and from where did you now exclude from the list just the Bishop of Agathopol, Bishop Hierotei and the Bishop of Constantia, Michael, who were elected in accordance with the Statute of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the two rounds of the diocesan elections in the Sliven Metropolitanate, which took place on February 18, 2024?
These elections were organized by Metropolitan John of Varna and Greater Preslav (deputy of the widowed Sliven Diocese) and then the diocesan electors, who are 42 laymen and priests, supported Agathopol Bishop Hierotei with 26 votes “for” in the first round and with 22 votes “for” ” Bishop Michael of Constantia on the second round.
We are obliged to remind you that even two months ago, after the annulment of the elections by the Holy Synod on the basis of a fabricated complaint-denunciation and report, which have not been made public to this day, the assumption was made that what was happening was, because of Bishop Arseniy of Znepol – vicar bishop of Metropolitan Nikolay of Plovdiv. He remarkably managed to collect the same number of votes, namely 17, in both rounds of the elections.
Doesn’t the decision of the Holy Synod clearly highlight the desire of some of the members of the Synod for the Metropolitan of Sliven to be imposed precisely by Bishop Arseniy of Znepole!
We are also obliged to remind you that it is not the first time in the modern history of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church that there have been elections for a metropolitan!
However, for the first time it became so rude, totally trampling the voice of the clerics and laymen, who had clearly expressed their desire to have the Agathopol Bishop Hierotei at the head of the Sliven Metropolitanate!
The current Metropolitan John of Varna and Veliko Preslav was elected bishop after the 2013 elections were counted. Then the Holy Synod takes into account the appeals and the signature of the laymen of this diocese, who insisted on counting the vote. In the elections, the then abbot of the Bachkovo Monastery, Boris, received 17 votes, and Bishop Ignatius – 16 votes.
Although there were complaints against them with collected signatures, they were included in the second list of eligible bishops together with the then Bishop Innocent of Krupnice, Jacob of Mesemvria, Tikhon of Tiberiopolis, Nahum of Stobia, John of Znepolis, Sioni the Great, Daniil of Dragovitia, Cyprian of Trajanopolis, Branitsky Gregory, John of Glavinitsa and Seraphim of Melnys.
In practice, once included in the list, the two candidates, because of which the vote was rejected, get a second chance to be among the chosen ones. This does not happen, but they are not deprived of the right to participate in the election again.
Then John was elected as the Metropolitan of Varna and Veliko Preslav. Now – 11 years later. to this same Metropolitan John of Varna and Veliky Preslav falls the task of holding the election for a new Metropolitan of Sliven. The diocesan electors placed their hope in the sanity and honor of the metropolitan, who at the end of the voting on February 18 announced that he had held canonical and statutory elections.
It is obvious that the Sliven diocesan leaders were lied to, and we wonder how Metropolitan John will now explain the actions of the Synod, of which he is a part?
Once again, you, our bishops, will not announce the reason and the reasons for the thus compiled list of candidates for Metropolitan of Sliven! This intention of yours is clear from the answer to a journalistic question put to Metropolitan Cyprian of Stara Zagora: “How was the vote on the composition of the list of bishops?”, to which the spokesman of the Holy Synod stated: “This remains within the Holy Synod.”
During these two months, the laity and diocesan electors from the Sliven Diocese sent several complaints, letters and signatures to the Holy Synod with the request that their voice be heard, that the Statute of the BOC be respected and that the election for the Metropolitan of Sliven continue from where it was stopped. Namely – the members of the Synod should elect one of the two bishops as metropolitan: Hieroteus of Agathopol and Michael of Constantia!
However, the elections were canceled again and you scheduled a new date for their holding – May 19. With the exception of some metropolitans, which unfortunately are not a majority in the Holy Synod, no one took into account the requests of lay people and voters!
Nevertheless, we express the hope that this time you, the metropolitans, will understand the facts and revise the list of eligible bishops to include Bishop Hieroteus of Agathopol and give him the opportunity to participate in the election again!
If not, we are obliged to remind you that we Bulgarians have an ancient tradition of how to welcome intruded and unwanted by laymen and clerics archpriests!
Atanas Orachev
chairman of the association “Orthodox vocation
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